|
Friday, August 23, 2002
Priests to shun trade
By Linette C. Ramos
PRIESTS in the Cebu Archdiocese will be prohibited from engaging in businesses, whether personal or family-owned. This is to keep their lives simple and to ensure they are focused on their ministries.
One of the resolutions approved in the plenary assembly of the recently concluded Archdiocesan Priests’ Congress asks priests to stop engaging in businesses.
Like the standardized remuneration resolution, Arch-diocesan media liaison officer Msgr. Achilles Dakay said this will also be difficult to implement and needs further study.
“It was not really specified what is ‘engagement in business.’ It’s not clear what businesses we’re not allowed to engage in, so we have to study this first and specify what is not allowed,” Dakay said.
Dakay admitted that up to this time, there are still priests engaging in businesses like banking and transportation, while others have investments.
Both the prohibitions to engage in business and the standardized remuneration resolutions are geared at keeping the lifestyle of priests simple.
Once the fixed monthly pay system is implemented, all priests, regardless of age, will get the same living allowance.
While he agrees with the contents of the resolution, Dakay said it will be difficult to implement it.
“This is very difficult because pareha na niya na tanan, matiguwang o bata. And we’re not Coca-Cola bottles that come out of San Miguel nga the same size, the same level. We have different needs,” he said.
The policy against priests engaging in business is stated in the Canon Law. It was brought up in the district consultations and eventually drafted as a resolution since it is not being strictly enforced.
Dakay said it has to be clarified if business activities include the selling of books a priest himself wrote.
Also, it has to be clarified if allowing family members to do business in the parish, such as printing materials for the parish, is prohibited or not.
Ownership of dummy corporations will also be prohibited.
To stop priests from engaging in business, there should be a strict implementation of Canon 286, the priests said in their resolution.
Unlike the standardized remuneration, the resolution supporting Canon 286 does not specify a time frame for its study and implementation.
Another approved resolution also called on parish priests to give appropriate compensation to parish employees.
Like many other resolutions that were approved and ratified, remuneration for church workers still need to be studied since there is no common understanding among priests of who among the parish workers deserve just compensation.
The resolution pushed for a full and comprehensive study to classify the various personnel who work in the parish, in view of providing them with just compensation and benefits.
The capacity of each parish and the legal implications of the undertaking will have to be considered, the priests said.
In the study that will be conducted by a committee, people who work in the parish will be classified into regular salaried people, honoraria recipients and volunteer workers.
“Everything is just a matter of attitude. Sometimes some priests assigned in the small parishes in towns are envious of priests assigned in big parishes in the city. We should rejoice in the diversity of assignments,” Dakay said.
The standardized remuneration has been suggested by priests during the Fourth Synod in 1984 and the Plenary Council of the Philippines II in 1991, with the goal of doing away with the arrancel system.
With the arrancel system, parishioners give a fixed amount for donations and sacraments administered by priests, such as baptism and weddings.
For so many years now, the standardized remuneration is being implemented in the Diocese of Tagbilaran in Bohol and in Mindanao.
Priests in the Archdiocese also called for the implementation of the Synod Statute on a Common Diocesan Fund, which, they said, is long overdue.
Statue 225 of the Synod stipulates that all parishes and institutions shall have one common coffer and from this, all priests duly assigned to any parish or institution shall be given a fixed monthly salary.
The salary will be uniform in the same circumstances but adjustable from time to time as needs may demand. |
|
[return to top]
[home]
[network page]
|
LOCAL NEWS
BUSINESS
OPINION
SPORTS
LIFESTYLE
FEATURE
SUPERBALITA
WEEKEND
|
